As Earth Day creeps up on us, marketing teams will deploy sustainability campaigns, journalists will scorn the greenwashers, and events small and large will take place around the world.
Earth Day is a time to come together to drive change for the sake of protecting our planet. Fittingly, this year's theme has been deemed "invest in our planet," a call to all sectors of society—businesses, governments, and citizens—to come together and take action.
For marketing teams, the holiday usually centers on highlighting a sustainability initiative their brand has undertaken or communicating a related milestone with their audience. Yet, the simple act of marketing (even digital) can have a significant environmental impact.
Assume your team sent 1 million emails over the last 12 months.* The CO2 emissions could range upward of 215kgs, which is equivalent to charging your phone 26,230 times—or, if you charge once a day, 72 years of charging!
Marketing teams themselves can enact a variety of operational changes to make a positive environmental difference. For primarily digital businesses, creating sustainability initiatives won't be as obvious as it might be for experiential and in-person marketing agencies. That's where creativity, collaboration, and a whole lot of research come into play!
Understandably, setting out on your journey to be more sustainable can be overwhelming. Here are a six actionable steps your team can take to start.
1. Define your goals
Take stock of your energy output, waste, and travel practices to assess where you are as an organization. That can be done with the help of external consulting agencies or internal environmental champions.
As the world returns to the office, events and activations become a reality again, and business travel picks up steam, your organization's current state will be a major consideration for defining your overall goals. Guides such as the Oxford Offsetting Principles—a set of standards that need to be met when approaching offsetting to ensure you reach net zero—can serve as a helpful framework and guiding light for your organization.
2. Talk to your team
Touch base with your team about where you are as an organization and ensure that your goals align. Cross-reference your previous stock check.
Collaborating and opening the floor to feedback will help identify overlooked points and find viable solutions that fit your organization. Transparency and collective participation are major assets in such an undertaking.
3. Work with like-minded partners
Vetting vendors' and partners' sustainability practices is another way to integrate your sustainability goals through every arm of your organization. That can be as obvious as switching to vendors that use recyclable materials or as subtle as switching to Cloud platforms that use renewable energy and sustainable computing practices.
Finding partners that share your mission will expedite how quickly you reach your organizational milestones and ensure that every facet of your business is accounted for. In turn, you will help your clients reach their goals by becoming sustainable inside and out.
